Murrysville police charge house cleaner with additional jewelry thefts
Jul. 5—A Murrysville woman who owns and operates a cleaning service faces additional allegations that she stole expensive jewelry from homes where she worked.
Holly L. Simpson, 48, was charged in late May with theft and receiving stolen property after police investigated reports that she had taken chains, rings and bracelets from a client on Trillium Drive in Murrysville. Police said Simpson sold 18 pieces of jewelry at two Monroeville pawn shops in April and May, according to court records.
Murrysville police said Wednesday that a second client of Simpson's business, Simpson Cleaning Services, read a Tribune-Review story about the initial charges and called to report several items of jewelry missing including a yellow-gold diamond tennis bracelet, aquamarine yellow-gold ring and a yellow-gold pearl ring with a combined value of more than $5,000.
That client had employed the cleaning service for the past five years, according to the criminal complaint.
Police said they were able to find two photos of rings matching the client's descriptions through the Pennsylvania Precious Metals website, which records jewelry transactions. The items were tracked back to sales made by Simpson to a Monroeville gold buyer, police said.
In addition to the rings, the client also found transactions on the website for a set of her gold earrings and a class ring that went missing in 2022, along with the tennis bracelet, all sold to the same Monroeville gold buyer.
Simpson told police her husband has a drug problem and she provided documentation that she mailed some of the items back to the Trillium Drive client, according to court papers.
Simpson was charged with one additional count each of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. An attorney was not listed in court records.
She was released on her own recognizance. A preliminary hearing on both sets of charges will take place July 11 in District Judge Charles Conway's Export court.
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .
